The present invention concerns a timepiece including luminous elements, and more particularly such a timepiece of the wristwatch type in which at least one luminous element can permanently be seen.
Jewellery pieces or timepieces including luminous sources intended to produce either solely a decorative effect, or to provide in addition a determined piece of information, which may or may not relate to the time base in the case of a timepiece, are already known. In a non limiting manner, reference can be made to French Patent No 2 183 763, which discloses a decorative timepiece constituted for example by a watch whose bezel supports bulbs preferably of the electroluminescent type, said bulbs being able to be switched on or off by means of a switch. In British Patent No 2 218 895 the luminous sources are diodes embedded in the bezel of a wristwatch, or arranged on the periphery of the space between the dial and the crystal; the circular case then has a free ring of significant width for housing electric supply batteries and an electronic circuit allowing the lighting mode of the different diodes to be controlled via pressure on a push button. In British Patent No 2 204 429, the luminous sources have different colours and are connected to the time base to give a time indication.
The devices of the prior art have in common the fact that they are compact and generally voluminous and only produce a luminous effect to the extent that the light emitting source, which is completely integrated in the device, is not masked, as may be the case when a sleeve of a piece of clothing covers a wristwatch.